I have a NEC DVD-RW model ND-3500AG which supports just about every type of cd or dvd including CD+RW, CD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RW. It will write the the cd's or dvd's o.k. but using re-writable cd's or dvd's it will not erase the data. It treets the RW cd's and DVD's the same as CD-R's and DVD-R's. I have the latest drivers installed. I have tried uninstalling the DVD drive in the device manager and letting windows re-install it. I can't seem to get it to write over using re-writable disks. Any ideas on something that I might be missing?

Sounds like you need to use a packet writing program for the RW discs

Nero InCD comes to mind.

Are you using XP's writer? I don't think it'll erase. It just records. I would recommend looking into Ashampoo Burning Studio. Much smaller foot print than Nero, Roxio, etc and very easy to use. Packet writing, (right click, send to the disc) causes lots of problems.

If I use Nero InCD and tell it to format the cd-rw or dvd-rw to use to drag and drop files to, it formatts it o.k. but when I put the cd/dvd back in the drive InCD tells me that it is a read-only disc and can read from it but cannot write to it.

Is this happening after you've used the disk once? I'm not familiar with Nero, but it sounds like it's finalizing (closing) the disks. You need to look for settings for multi-session and/or see if there's an option checked to close the disk after burning, and un-check it. If it's finalizing, you won't be able to add more data to fill it up.

1. XP's writer will erase discs. I've used it many times.
2. If you have a burner, whether you're multi-sessioning or not, the disc will erase.
3. If you uninstall the drivers for the burner, DO NOT let windows reinstall them. Do it manually with your disc, because it may be reinstalling the same corrupt files.

Try this program.. it's FREE. DeepBurner http://www.deepburner.com

After you uninstall your burner software, just load up the DeepBurner, and see if it takes over.

If that doesn't work, then you'll need to do a registry cleaner on your computer after you've uninstalled your burner software. A good FREE registry cleaner can be found here. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner 1.2 http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleane...try_cleaner.htm

You may want to use the registry cleaner before installing the DeepBurner, just so you'll eliminate the possiblilty of your corrupted files still being initiated later on.

I am using new disks right out of the box.

Thanks Walkman. This sounds like some good information. I will try your suggestions as soon as I can, which may not be until later in the week.

I uninstalled the dvd drive and Nero software. Cleaned the registry with RegClean. This is an OEM drive and I couldn'd find a driver for anything except a non-OEM drive anywhere so when I rebooted after cleaning the registry, windows re-installed the hardware using the drivers that come with XP. I then installed DeepBurner. I then wrote a small text file to a new, out-of-the-box dvd+rw disk using DeepBurner and then used DeepBurner to try to erase the disk and got a message that the medium is read-only and not erasable. I am beginning to think that the problem something is defective with the drive itself and not software related.

You generally won't find drivers for most CD/DVD drives. The drivers are handled by the chipset drivers on the motherboard.

Since DeepBurner won't let you do it (but it works well otherwise) I'd have to assume that the drive is defective. They're fairly cheap - can you purchase one and see if that works? (make sure to get one from a store that you can return it to if money is an issue).

Thanks usasma for your knowledgeable input. I think I'll live with what I have for awhile. Not that big of a problem. As cheap as dvd-r's are now with all the instant rebates going on I'll just stock up on them and use them when I do a backup of my hard drive instead of messing with re-writeable disks for now. Thanks all.